Agonising final phone call of girl dying from reaction to baguette
THE father of a teenage girl who had a severe allergic reaction to a baguette held a phone to her ear as she lay dying in hospital so her mother and brother could say goodbye, an inquest has heard.
Natasha Ednan-laperouse, 15, collapsed on a British Airways flight from London to Nice after eating the snack, purchased from Pret a Manger at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5.
She had been travelling with her father and best friend for a four-day break at the start of what should have been “the best summer ever” when she stopped to buy the artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette.
Unknown to the group, the dough contained sesame seed, a detail not mentioned on its packaging, according to her father, Nadim Ednan-laperouse.
“Natasha told me she had found a baguette that contained all the ingredients she loved and could eat,” he said in a statement read out on the first day of her inquest at West London Coroner’s Court.
The label gave “no indication or mention that sesame seeds were present”, he said, adding: “Natasha and I relied on food information and saw no need to ask Pret counter staff if any other information was needed.” Shortly after boarding the plane, on July 17 2016, Natasha felt her throat growing itchy and took some Piriton.
Around 20 minutes into the flight, she complained it was getting worse and her father noticed her neck looked red, as if she had been rubbing it.
Shortly afterwards she returned from the lavatory with vicious red hives on her midriff “like a jellyfish sting”, the inquest heard.
Her father said: “[She told me] ‘Daddy, I’m not feeling well’ and she lifted up her top and displayed these red welts like lacerations which I had not seen before, but I understood something unbelievable was going on.” Natasha was rushed to the cabin’s lavatory, where her father applied a first Epipen jab, followed by another.
“Natasha said that she still couldn’t breathe and desperately looked at me, she said ‘Daddy, help me, I can’t breathe,’” Mr Ednan-laperouse said.
She soon lost consciousness, and cabin staff were aided by a recently qualified junior doctor in applying CPR for the remainder of the journey before she was rushed to a Nice hospital.
As hope began to fade, Mr Ednanlaperouse put a phone to her ear so her mother and brother could say goodbye.
Her mother Tanya wiped her eyes as she listened to the statement in court.
“The pain and agony of the call was beyond anything I have known,” the statement said of the moment Mr Ednan-laperouse broke the news to Natasha’s mother. He continued: “These calls I had to make were the worst of my life. Each of them was completely overwhelmed, distressed and shocked.”
The coroner was told that Pret usually has stickers with white text stuck to its fridges, outlining allergy information. Jeremy Hyam QC, the family’s lawyer, suggested these had not been in place in July 2016, when he questioned Abdoulaye-djouma Diallo, the general manager of the branch at the time. The inquest is due to last until Friday.